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Discovered 386 PC in my basement that I thought was lost in move of 1998!

Billyray said:
Don't forget I still need advice on a sound card. :eat:
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It all depends on what you want to do. Whether you want to be anal and "period correct", nostalgic, etc. SB/Adlib compatibility, midi support, FM synth etc There's certainly a few to choose from. 8 bit cards such as Media Vision Thunderboards through to later so called ISA PnP cards that can be happily used on older kit such as this. Do you want a card with an IDE header or a proprietory interface header to possibly use a cd rom?
 
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Caluser2000 said:
It all depends on what you want to do. Whether you want to be anal and "period correct", nostalgic, etc. SB/Adlib compatibility, midi support, FM synth etc There's certainly a few to choose from. 8 bit cards such as Media Vision Thunderboards through to later so called ISA PnP cards that can be happily used on older kit such as this. Do you want a card with an IDE header or a proprietory interface header to possibly use a cd rom?
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Thanks for the help! I suppose I just want fast and easy. :) But the idea of adding a CD drive is not bad.. But then I have to consider the PSU, since I am already planning to upgrade the memory and add another hdd.

@ luvit: thanks, I may just look for the SB pro. Hope you find a good case. They're out there...
@ Hatta: thanks!
 
If you need driver etc Vogons has a good resource http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/index.php?catid=7

I run a CDRom in my generic 386DX25 box along with a 2 gig Quantum bigfoot drive.

I've been trying a few sound cards on my Zenith 286. Just dragged a few out of my bits boxes. Two cards that did work without jumping though hoops were the CT 1740(SB16 ASP) and a ESS Audio Audio Drive S521-SA. Both have IDE interfaces, not that that matters much in my Zenith though due to the small size of the thing. Settled on the CT 1740 just because of the volume knob ;) and just been playing Hocus Pocus. Works great. Anyway good luck on your search. That's half the fun.

Having a network card is a good idea as well. Opens up a lot of options from installing am XTIDE ROM for larger drive support, accessing a more modern machine for storage through to getting on the internet ;)
 
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luvit said:
Right-on, man! That case is immaculate.. i envy you with that mini tower.
After I accomplish a few things.. I may be building one of those ...if I can get a beautiful case.
Cases with noteable wear or mars from that era doesn't turn me on so much.
*** From that era, I used SoundBlaster Pro. ***
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Just an update. I found a Sound Blaster Pro (most expensive part I purchased so far: $80 with shipping!) :nervous: :listen: It installed and worked great, plus it was in very clean condition. The only thing is I can't get the "PC Raider" NOS joy stick to work. It's new old stock, so should be ok. The joystick port enable is jumpered (default) :huh: I owe some thanks to whomever posted the Sound Blaster Pro driver disks in a zipfile in one of the old threads here. :D Windows 3.1 has sounds now, yay, plus my games like Galactix, Wolfenstein 3D etc have sound. (but I could sure use a working joy stick...) I also upgraded the ram from 4 MB to 8 MB, but then I found some mobo specs that said it can handle 32 MB. So I'm waiting for that to arrive (along with some additional sram.)

Coming soon: Windows upgrade to Windows 3.11 for work groups, Linksys ethernet card, added hdd, some old paperback books on Windows 3.1 and DOS 5 (although I DO have the original manuals.)

:roadwork:
 
mm k.
a month ago, i scored a PC Raider, too.. but no vintage PC ready for joysticks.. lol.
i know you have the joystick jumper enabled, but make sure your jumper actually has metal in it (slim chance, but easy check).
also, make sure the SBpro joystick port is not in Midi-mode. I've never used Midi.. so there *may* not be a midi-mode.
I bet midi-mode would be software enabled.. so this could also be a far-fetched thought.
What methods are you doing to test?
 
Another update: I got my 200 MB WD Caviar IDE hdd and cloned my current 100 MB Seagate drive to it (manually, using DOS xcopy) and then switched them around so that the 200 MB hdd is the boot C: drive with about 130 MB to spare. Yay. :p The old drive is currently the D: drive, and I'm reluctant to erase anything on it, since now it makes a good backup of my system, with an additional 30 MB of room for misc. Although it is still configured as an Active Primary Dos partition. I'm going to look for a 500 MB drive eventually to replace that 100 MB D: drive. Meanwhile I have been running into memory problems. If you recall, I had a memory problem the very first time I fired this baby up after finding it. But then the problem seemed to melt away. I still haven't been able to run memcheck 86. With 4 MB of ram, I couldn't get the program to even start. Now with 8 MB of ram, It starts up to the first screen then immediately shuts down. I'm still awaiting my new memory chips to upgrade the cache and system memory to 32 MB. Hopefully when that is installed I will be able to run memcheck 86. Anyhoo, I am getting the BIG MEMORY PARITY ERROR halt screen, right after DOS loads all of its drivers. I turned off parity checking in the BIOS so I could at least get into my system like normal, but I know there's trouble lurking.

I updated the drivers for the Sound Blaster Pro 2 from the download on Creative's website. But that still didn't get the game port to work. I checked the jumper in the "joyen" header, and it's good, metal and all! There are no discernible Midi enable jumpers that I could find, nor any software enable/disable settings I could find. So I'm leaning to the idea that the Sound card's game port "may" be fubared. I also have a Sound Blaster in my 486-66mhz Gateway 2000 tower with Windows 95 computer, so I could try the joystick there. But I have to either get a game that uses a joystick or get a joystick check tool to test it there. I've never used the Win 95 computer for games, so it doesn't have any right now. But that should at least tell me if the joystick is ok. ;)

@luvit; hope you find the computer you need soon so you can plug in YOUR joystick! :D I hope that doesn't sound sleazy. :oops:
 
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Thanks for the notice Stone. I haven't proven that my joystick is the culprit yet. Meanwhile I have upgraded the Cache from 64k to 256k and the RAM from 4 MB to 20 MB. I would have had 32 MB but some of the boards I got from ebay are DOA. :rip: I upgraded the single 100 MB hdd to TWO hdd's. One is a WD Caviar 203 MB and the other is Maxtor 406 MB. So I have lots of room to spread out now. I'm still waiting for my Windows 3.11 fwg upgrade so I can add networking. :lovecircle: So far my biggest headache is getting the config.sys file and autoexec.bat settings tweaked right. Windows and all other DOS programs work good, but my Dos Navigator only works from Windows now, and not from DOS when I first boot up. *sigh* :rain:
 
Good idea luvit, I'll try that game. I'll download it to my Windows 95 computer which also has a joy stick port and see if it works there. I know there's a joystick test program, but I think it's like a light bulb. It either works or it doesn't. I don't need to calibrate it or anything. BTW, since you have one too, what are those slide switches for that say A (auto) B (auto) on either side? :?
 
Choose a good version of the Commander Keen... like "Keen 6: Aliens Ate My Baby Sitter!"
DOS only..
A button is trigger finger. B button is the thumb.
Switch the "Auto A" switch forward and it will Auto Fire 30 times per second when you hold-down the A button.
"Auto B" switch does the same thing for the thumb button.
PC Raider Instructions
 
Ok thanks. I didn't get the instructions. Since the last time, I installed the Network card. I have upgraded Windows 3.1 to 3.11 for workgroups. I have been trying for days to get it to be recognized by my router, but so far no luck.
 
Got the network card working. Problem was the card was bad. :stern: I was in denial (that it could be a bad card) for several days because the card's own diagnostics said it was functioning perfectly, and there were no error messages otherwise. The lights on the back of the card worked properly, it programmed properly, it just wouldn't connect! Plus it was a brand new NOS card and never used! I have the exact same card in my Windows 95 Gateway 2000 so I yanked that one out and tried it in the little 386, and finally everything started working. Then I put the malfunctioning card in the Gateway 2000, and sure enough, it could no longer connect to the LAN. (That's after redoing all of the settings of course.) It's the Linksys Ether16 ISA card for anyone that cares. I just ordered another one on ebay. :neutral: So I'll be able to go back and study the joy stick problem again. I also have a memory issue. Not in the computer, but with some I bought. So lots of things to stay busy with. ;)

Upgrades so far:
2 hdds (C: 200 MB WD Caviar and D: & E: 400 MB Maxtor, all up from a single 100MB Seagate)
SoundBlaster Pro II sound card
Linksys Ether16 NIC
Windows 3.11 for Workgroups (up from 3.1)
20 MB RAM (up from 4 MB, still need to get it up to 32 MB)
256 Cache (up from 64k cache)
 
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luvit said:
Good job on the troubleshooting. I bought 2 of the same nics for the very reason you described.. Just in case I had to do that
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Smart move luvit! I hope the new card works ok. But in fairness, I can see how the bad card got past QC, since it was slyly acting good. :sly:
 
smeezekitty said:
I am curious how the 386 does browsing the web. A bit sluggish I imagine
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I'd guess that too. In fact the Windows 95 Gateway 2000 with the 486 @66 Mhz is slow enough! I have no interest in getting the 386 on the web too. I just wanted an easy way to get stuff in and out of that computer. :)
 
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